Maru stars as Carp rally to beat Dragons

NAGOYA – Yoshihiro Maru drove in all three Hiroshima runs on Wednesday as the Carp overturned a 2-0 deficit to beat the Chunichi Dragons.

Chunichi right-hander Kentaro Nishikawa held Hiroshima to a lone hit through five scoreless innings, before Maru took him deep for his sixth home run of the season, a two-out, sixth-inning solo shot at Nagoya Dome.

Maru decided the game in the top of the eighth against Akifumi Takahashi (0-1). The lefty walked Fred Lewis with one out, and third baseman Hector Luna let Ryosuke Kikuchi’s grounder get past him for a two-base error. Maru singled Takahashi’s next pitch into left to score both runners.

Right-hander Hirofumi Ueno (2-0) allowed a hit in 1⅔ innings of scoreless relief to earn the win. Lefty Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara worked a perfect eighth, and Kam Mickolio did the same in the ninth to collect his 14th save.

Swallows 8, BayStars 6

At Yokohama Stadium, last-place Tokyo Yakult won a home run derby with DeNA’s Nyjer Morgan to come from behind and defeat the BayStars behind a three-run jack by Ryoji Aikawa and two-run shots from Yasushi Iihara and Wladimir Balentien, his Japan-leading 27th.

Morgan, who went 4-for-5, opened the scoring in the first with a double and scored, hit a solo homer in the third, singled in the fifth and belted a three-run shot in the seventh.

Giants at Tigers —ppd.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Lions 9, Buffaloes 4

At Kyocera Dome, Seibu captain Hideki Kuriyama drew first blood with a third-inning RBI single off Orix starter Takahiro Matsuba (3-4), and Hideto Asamura followed with a two-run shot off the Buffaloes rookie and the Lions never looked back. Asamura went 3-for-3 with two walks, two runs and three runs batted in.

Lions right-hander Ryoma Nogami (5-2) allowed four runs in seven innings to earn the victory. Ryoichi Adachi and Aarom Baldiris each hit a two-run homer for the Buffaloes, but it was too little, too late.